Chapter 2
Trudging through the endless foliage, the knight continued to his unknown destination; wandering with persistence. With every step, twigs snapped underneath his heavy foot and the thick moss-covered ground sunk deeply. With a simple swing of the blade in hand, branches fell onto the shrubbery beneath him, snapping and crunching under the weight of his foot. Chirps and hums were sung from the peaks of the large trunks in the vast forest, followed by small sounds of fluttering and flapping as birds flew through the thicket. Vibrant colors dotted the moss-covered grounds in bundles of flowers laid near the trunk trees. They swayed in harmony without a breeze and hummed to themselves quietly as if speaking to each other.
Curiously, the knight stopped his trek and bent over, gazing critically at the small group of vibrant plants as they continued to sway side to side, buzzing lowly. His attention was soon after moved from the flowers to himself or more specifically his feet as they slowly started to sink in the layers of viridian that painted the forest floor. It wasn't a fast decline into the plant, but it was indeed noticeable if you still for a while. Unsure, the knight returned to his standing position, removed his feet from the sunken earth, and began his aimless stroll again.
Now walking light-footed, he hiked his way through the endless vegetation silently, observing his surroundings once again. This time, however, the low humming that reverberated around the wooded lands was getting quieter. Not only that, but the sun starting to settle on the opposite horizon was an alarming sight. Pausing his journey, he surveyed his surroundings with scrutiny. The many trees obscured his view greatly, but in the far-off distance, he could see a punched hole in the side of an elevated ridge. Uneasy, he quickly picked up the pace to his newfound destination. He continued to increase in speed, increasing from a speed walk to a jog, to as close of a sprint as the knight could achieve with the heavy-duty armor he was wearing. Clanking and clinking followed him as his armor rattled and rubbed against itself after every rough step onto the mushy surface that squelched and squealed under his weight. After a few more moments of sprinting, he arrived at the cliffside gazing at it evenly. The natural wall was a chalky white, with blotches of light grays painted on it occasionally. Looking up, the cliff was noticeably taller than the trees in the surrounding area, nearly reaching the clouds above. Ledges protruded out of the side of the cliff, contrasting the smooth cliffside oddly. From those ledges, plants, and vines hung limply against the cliffside, swaying ever so slightly from the singing breeze that was always present.
Looking back at the cave entrance, the knight was on guard as he unlodged himself from the earth that was starting to swallow him, and began to cautiously approach his possible shelter for the foreseeable future. Despite the cliff being so pale, the cave was covered in deep grays and continued getting darker in shade as the grays morphed into blackened shadows that blocked the rest of the cave from view. It was oddly unsettling to look at, due to the various sounds of the lively forest dying instantaneously, leaving an eerie and haunting silence that blanketed the forest, leading to an almost dangerous aroma that started to slowly waft out of the cave. Now with a hand on the hilt of his blade, he continued to advance, until he stopped right in front of the cave's mouth. Scanning the cave again, the shadows had retreated from view, allowing the full cave to come into view. It was a small dank space, covered in various shades of grays that stretched widely across the stone walls and ceiling, but ended abruptly at the moss-covered grounds which once again started to consume the souls of the knight's feet. Faint stains of red could be seen on the stone walls that abstractly covered the grays. The eyes of the man narrowed behind the helmet's shadowy eye holes. He then reached out with his vacant hand to trace the decrepit walls. Hand now on the wall, low screeching could be heard as he traced the wall with his armored appendage leaving small and barely visible scratches along the cold stone of the damp cavity in the cliff. Turning his body slightly, he stared at a part of the tiny cavern not far from himself.
Moving swiftly, the knight pivoted and thereafter moved to observe that section of the cave. After a few steps in that direction, he arrived at the source of his suspicion which quickly led to him crouching over to observe the moss that stretched over the surface. After a momentary pause, the knight stretched out his gauntleted hand slowly toward that particular patch of moss before stopping right above the non-flowering plant. Gathering himself, he touched the ground with a soft thump that reverberated in the small cave for a while; not waiting for it to end, the man forced his hand beneath the moss, and soon after his forearm joined the attached hand beneath the surface. Immediately, a sensation drenched his limb through his gloved hand, he could feel the watery soil that churned with a mind of its own around his arm, which was both being squeezed as well as being stretched all while the appendaged tried to seemingly fall asleep if the sensation he was feeling said anything. However, he didn't seem to care as he continued deeper into the hole, looking around for a specific object to confirm his suspicions. Which wasn't as far beneath the surface as he originally thought it would be. Once he had a good feel of the object, he plunged his other hand into the writhing green mass beneath him. With that single motion, his right arm joined his left holding the object of his curiosity. With both arms now able to remove the object, it was a simple tug of war with the ground beneath him. He pulled mindlessly, trying to retrieve what was starting to poke out of the moss which was slowly but surely, beginning to enclose itself once again while sucking up the duo of limbs in its territory. Suddenly, the knight shifted his footing, planting one in place while putting the other on a cool gray wall to gain more leverage. Roughly, his hands roamed the unknown object through the mud, before arriving at two separate junctions that connected the torso to what he believed to be the arms. Nodding to himself, he hooked his arms around both junctions and yanked the body out of the trashing mud with one last pull.
With the added weight on his armor-clad chest, he was forced to move his leg back down to the ground, violently removing his other from the now calming sludge beneath him. Blocked by the now-revealed body, he did not notice the gaping wound in the flooring shift back into the still state it was once in, turning back into moss. He lifted the body over his shoulder with little effort, walking into the now-darkening clearing, to better understand what he pulled out of the living, inanimate object.
Once in the light once again, he casually threw down the weight on his shoulder while keeping his other hand on his weapon. The first thing that he noticed was the stench of the open wound was vile as it smelled like the carcass of a dead animal that had been left to rot for weeks. Staggering back slightly, he tried catching his breath and after a few more moments was able to adjust slightly to the stench and then returned to the corpse.
It was vaguely human; a bipedal stance, two arms and two legs laid limply; bent in several spots that shouldn't bend. Its pale white skin contrasted with the vibrant green that surrounded it nauseously. Faint pink veins could be seen larger than average throughout the various parts of its visible body. Tattered and torn black robes concealed much of its worn and sickeningly thin frame. From the battered palms of its hands, glistened with red and bathed in sunlight, shun silver chain links that protruded slightly. From the right shoulder to the middle of its gaunt chest, a large gash went through its cloak, cutting deep into its horrid physique. The cut was done savagely, uncaring if the body was mutilated. Through the deep slash, a sickening pink liquid leaked from the open wound and traveled along the inside of the wound, expanding it slowly. As its body slowly ate away at itself, the knight's eyes slowly shifted up to the creature's head and cringed slightly at the sight. Its head, while human in shape, held a farcry difference in facial structure. The creature had a large toothless maw with what vaguely looked like rotting gums covering the rest of it. Through its open mouth, no tongue could be seen, which likely meant it was ripped or cut off at some point in its long lifetime. Moving out of its main orifice, an intact human-like nose sat in the middle of its face, covered in black dots that dotted its pale face randomly. Next to the nose, the eyes, or lack thereof, were replaced with two similarly sized holes, blackened from age, which also oozed the pink fluid, not so dissimilar to the large open gash on its chest. Resting in the middle of its forehead, a diamond formation looked to be tattooed onto its skin surrounding a single eyelashless eyelid, concealing a third eye beneath it. The knight tensed as he saw the closed eye on its forehead while clasping the hilt of his blade tightly, getting ready. When he didn't see the body even twitch in response, he slightly let down his guard and approached the undying cautiously. He maneuvered his body; removing his feet from the moss for the umpteenth time, he dug his heels into the palms of the body beneath him while removing the blade from its scabbard and thereafter positioning it to pierce what looked to be a corpse square in the forehead. Not wasting a moment, he swung the blade down, skewering it through the eyelid. The pink liquid squirted out from the wound, much more than either of the previously observed wounds. Not wanting to touch the strange liquid, he lurched back abruptly, removing his feet from the palms and walking backward enough to be out of range from the event that was soon to take place.
The pinky substance spewed out of the wound dramatically and with no care for its surroundings as it dissolved everything and anything it touched without remorse or hesitation. The green moss that engulfed the body was left in an ashen mess as it slowly became nothing while the body decomposed itself at an alarming rate. With every drop of pink that made contact with its skin, a hole was made directly through the corpse, allowing for an even greater shower of acid. With the amount of the acid exponentially increasing, the remains of the creature soon disappeared as it disintegrated, leaving nothing behind, but a small pale blue marble. He waited a moment with bated breath, before hesitantly moving closer to the innocent-looking marble. He snatched it up quickly, before backing up as the charred moss sank below surface level while the healthy-looking moss stretched to reconnect over its open wound. A few moments passed and the once slightly disturbing scene died leaving the same vacant forest as he had been in previously.
He eyed the marble in his hand with a strange glint in his weary and tired eyes. He quickly placed the marble in a small compartment in his right forearm, next to a few other marbles that looked to be pitch black, to their cores. Noticing them, he quickly grabbed hold of the trio of marbles and tossed them onto the floor beneath him leaving the dead-looking marbles while closing the small space on his forearm, leaving the single marble alone. He once again scanned his surroundings, akin to that of a hawk, before suddenly letting loose a yawn of displeasure. Glancing towards the clear sky above, the sun was no longer visible, as it was hiding behind the clouded cliffside he was standing next to. The visible sky however looked to be much darker than before, indigos bathed the skies above, while long stretches of orange pierced through the blues like spears through warriors, battling for control over the dimming sky.
Moving his head back to the surrounding area, He quickly moved to a single sturdy-looking, extremely tall tree. It was an older tree, most likely multiple centuries old, with branches that stretched out farther than some of the other trees were tall. Long vines hung from the said branches with a sway to them that made them look like they were dancing among themselves to the tune of the whispering winds. Without a second thought in the matter, he sheathed his weapon, and strung it back to his waist, before grabbing a hold of what felt like a sturdy vine and starting the climb up.
As hand went over hand, he made his way up the tree at a sedate pace, smoothly bringing hand over hand as his body swayed in the wind ever so slightly. The sun had long since been replaced by the 2 large moons that were huddled together along the distant forested horizon. Each, while similar in size, was quite different, the larger of the pair was a dull red in hue, contrasting the smaller of the pair as it was a deep shade of blue that pronounced its difficulty to see in the inky blackness of the night sky. All across the open ocean above; stars both gathered in bunches scattering themselves across the vast and infinite expanse of space while forming various images with the many constellations that made up the starry waters above. Across the large starry skies, boundless nebulae stretched from one side of the sky to the other, abstractly blending and bending every color in the rainbow to its will, creating a one-of-a-kind sight. He had paused many times to stare at the sky for long periods each, it had been so long since he had seen a night sky, let alone one as objectively beautiful as this one, and with every glance at the sky, it rejuvenated his will, reigniting the flare within him to continue his climb up the towering tree.
Not long after, he had arrived at the branch holding up the vine he was climbing, which happened to be one of the largest, and highest branches on the entire tree. He quickly recomposed himself from his tiring journey up and cautiously moved himself further along the branch, so he could receive a better look at the night sky he had longed to see for so long. Once he had found the spot he liked, he sat down, allowing his legs to hang off the branch as he gazed wondrously, towards the brilliant sight before him.
The moons danced to themselves, like that of lovers, while the hundreds of stars gazed down at the world he sat on with such fond loveliness twinkling in their shared expressions. They brightened ever so slightly more when he gazed deeper at them; they loved the attention given to them. His eyes however hung on the dual moons as they swayed to themselves, uncaring of the eyes on them or the world beneath them. It made his heart ache with acknowledgment. They were able to be together for all eternity, but he could not be with her for the rest of eternity. He was cursed with life forever lasting and with that, was never able to see her again, and he had no one to blame but himself. Everything that was once held so close to his heart had disappeared, like that of sand held in one's hand. He could not bear staring at such a positively explosive sky, never empty, never alone. A pair of eyes switched to the inky darkness of the forest-covered grounds around him. The skies above him paused their celebrations, acknowledging the dark thoughts that plagued his mind and leaving him alone. The stars grew dim, the nebulae dulled, and thin gray clouds shrouded the once prominent moons. It was just him now; him and his sorrow, just as it had been for all that time. Small shudders in his shoulders were made noticeable by the low clinking of his armor rubbing against itself. The large breaths he made only further confirmed the guilt quelled deep in his chest. It didn't last long, his eyes soon after drooped behind his helmet, and he succumbed to his exhaustion, which pierced through his anguish